SPIDER-MAN (2002) ***

Reviewed 5/4/02

Among Marvel Comics’ superhero lineup, Spider-Man has never been as noble as Captain America, as powerful as the Incredible Hulk, or as grandiose as the Silver Surfer, which just might be why Spider-Man has always been the most popular.  Spider-Man alter-ego Peter Parker is a troubled young man who tries to do the right thing but often finds that “no good deed goes unpunished” is the axiom of his life.  That appeals to readers, especially young ones, who can empathize.  SPIDER-MAN director Sam Raimi and writer David Koepp don’t forget this crucial aspect of Spidey in his $120 million big screen debut.

An orphan, the much put-upon nerdy teen Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) lives with his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) in Queens.  Peter has always been in love with the redhead next door, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), but afraid to voice his feelings, Peter has passively watched her drift from boy to boy.  M.J.’s latest boyfriend, Flash Thompson (Joe Manganiello), particularly likes to pick on Peter.  On a high school field trip, Peter is bitten by an escaped genetically-altered super spider (as opposed to the quaintly radioactive one in the comic).  He discovers it has given him astonishing strength, reflexes, and resiliency as well as the ability to crawl on walls, launch webbing from his wrists, and sense imminent danger.

To exploit his newfound abilities, Peter adopts a masked identity to wrestle for money and becomes known as the Amazing Spider-Man.  When the wrestling promoter stiffs Peter on his fee, Peter lets a burglar (Michael Papajohn) who robs the promoter escape when he could have easily stopped him.  Then Peter discovers this same burglar has carjacked and shot his Uncle Ben to death.  Peter decides to honor his uncle’s words that “with great power comes great responsibility,” and uses his powers to fight crime to atone for his uncle’s death.

After high school, Peter moves in with best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), son of Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) and heir to his father’s fortune from running a company that supplies hi-tech weaponry to the military.  With a company-breaking contract on the line, Norman performs a human-enhancement experiment on himself.   The test goes awry and while Norman attains superhuman strength and endurance, he also goes insane.  Donning an armored flight suit and rocket glider, he becomes the Green Goblin and Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis.

The amazing thing about SPIDER-MAN is that it makes you want to dwell more on Peter Parker’s life and less on Spidey duking it out with the Green Goblin.  The source of this desire is the terrific casting choice of Tobey Maguire whose combination of detached introversion and low-key humor grounds Peter Parker in an identifiable adolescence.   Maguire is not an actor with great range, but he has rarely been more suited for a part.  The movie’s best section is Peter’s gradual realization that he has changed from the spider bite.  Maguire plays it with a mixture of budding excitement and a sense of humor that displaces what would otherwise be horror at such a physical transformation.

New York City is on wonderful display in SPIDER-MAN.  Instead of the usual icons like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, Raimi showcases St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Queensboro Bridge and in an amusing joke locates the fictive newspaper, The Daily Bugle, in the Flatiron Building.  SPIDER-MAN does have its weaknesses.  Raimi occasionally goes over-the-top too much, especially with regard to the Green Goblin storyline; the movie is bookended with totally unnecessary voice-over narration; and the CGI action sequences look very fake.  But the movie has its heart in the right place providing good balance between the action and the life of Peter Parker.  Watch for cameos from wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage, preeminent Marvel creator Stan Lee, and Sam Raimi’s cohorts from “Xena, Warrior Princess”: Lucy Lawless, Bruce Campbell, and brother Ted Raimi.